I'm fairly competent on my Kona One at using footstraps and harness. I'm also beginning to carve gibe when planing. My weight is 180 lbs depending on the season and I'm 6'. Most of the time I sail on flat water.

Disagree, 120 liters. 145 is too big for a 180 lb. guy unless he's in very light wind all the time. Since he's in the straps on his Kona he's getting some decent wind, and the fact that he can jibe it tells me he's getting more advanced. Have you ever tried to carve jibe a Kona? I have, last Saturday, and it's no easy feat. You should be able to uphaul a 120 fairly easily (I weigh 210 and can uphaul a 115, albeit with difficulty). Get yourself a nice 120 l. FSW board and you'll be able to sail it even when you're advanced.

A Tabou Rocket 125 would be a good choice in a new board. Exocet (makers of your Kona) has some excellent easy-to-sail boards as well, I've been sailing a Cross for many years (serial #0001) and love it. The Cross IV only goes up to 114, but that's probably close enough._________________Spennie the Wind Junkie
www.WindJunkie.net

Starting on a long board used to be standard proceedure. As you say, we learnt to plane, tack, gybe, and most crucially waterstart on them. The next step then was adding a 295 (much shorter and wider nowadays of course) of about 120 litres, to make a two board combination.

You don't saay whether you've yet 'cracked' waterstarting, but if not, the Kona is a fine board to learn on. It will make it easier to learn (length and volume) by not twitching all over the place as you clumsily (at first) heave yourself up out of the water while not quite properly balanced. Flat water will also help the process.

Once learnt, you just transfer the technique to a smaller board, albeit with a need to react more quickly to hold it together, before powering off. The sensible option (assuming you will keep the Kona, and you should) would be to move to 120 ish litres for a good two board combo.

It does get very windy around here (West MN). Yesterday I was in near 25+ mph wind with my Kona, a 5.0 Retro and a 39cm fin. Had to use the center board to go upwind and retract it to blast downwind. All in all - a terrible setup because 1/2 of my energy went into extending and retracting the centerboard. Kona is useless going upwind in high winds. It's too much work for a 5.0 sail to move a huge board like that.

Exocet has the S-Cross lines for freeride in 126 L. I've been pretty brand loyal and like dealing with Steve G. at Sandypoint, but am open to other options: Tabou, Goya.

I guess I might be a bit out of school here, but I would recommend a board in the 100-110 liter range. Boards in that range can easily handle sails up to 6.5, and even up to 7.0 with a larger 110 liter. On the other end of the spectrum, you can easily go with a 5.0, and maybe down to 4.7 with the 100 liter.

In picking a board in this range, you should be waterstarting without a problem. The idea of uphauling should only be considered in situations where the wind suddenly dies and you need to slog in. Lastly, targeting the 100-110 liter range, you are well positioned to move to a board in the 75-85 liter range later down the line for higher winds.

If the Kona is planing and you are in the straps, it will fly upwind without the centreboard , in the same way any other board will. (The duck tail even makes it feel smaller when planing.)

While a 5.0 sail is not ideal, even that will certainly plane the Kona upwind, in 25+ knots of wind. ( Before short boards hit the scene, we even used 3.9 sails in gales, on our Hi-Fli 555'S--- and boy, did they shift!)

For strongish winds a modern 6.0 sail matches the Kona 1 well for any poiunt of sail, and will certainly propel it to 25+ m.p.h. Try it, without the centreboard, on a plane. It really is an outstanding board.

It IS an outstanding board GURGLE, but it will go faster than 25! I went 30.5 mph a week ago, see attached photo. I was using a 7.1 race sail, however, and an MFC 40cm. race fin. Could probably go 35 if I had bigger balls! Anybody know the record?

Nodak- I've put a lot of thought into which sizes of shortboards are good for which stages of progression. My "windsurfing calculator" (see link in my signature) will pick two types for you based on your weight.

A 136 liter board would be a much easier adjustment from the Kona than would a 112 liter board. However, it would have a wind and sail range (12-20 knots, 9.0 - 6.0) that might overlap a lot with the Kona and it might not have the characteristics you're looking for in 20+ knots with < 6.0 sails.

The recommendation of a 120 liter board is probably a good compromise, then. You just need to decide what style of ~120 liter board you want to go for; the speedy style or the playful style, or something in between. The S-Cross would be a safe choice, leaning a little more toward the speedy style. The speedy style usually plane earlier and stay upwind easier than the playful style.

-James

PS- Yeah, the Kona can go pretty fast and handle some pretty high wind. Just takes a little adjustment to ride it in those conditions. Probably want the mast track all the way back, boom quite high if you're using a small sail, back footstraps more towards the centerline if you're using a small fin, etc._________________James' Blog: Windsurfing Equipment Size Calculator
http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2010/11/updated-windsurf-calculator-online.html

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